PREM CHAND Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner was convicted for the offence under Section 9 of the Opium Act and sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5000/- or in default of payment of fine, to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for nine. months by the learned Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Hoshiarpur. On appeal, his conviction and sentence was upheld by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Hoshiarpur. Hence this revision petition against his conviction and sentence.

(2.) THE prosecution case as set up at I he trial was that on 11th July, 1980, P. W. 1 S. I. Manohar Singh, who was then posted on the Detective Staff at Hoshiarpur, was instructed by the Inspector of Police to investigate the case registered against the petitioner under Section 9 of the Opium Act, Accordingly S. I. Manohar Singh P. W. reached the police station City, Hoshiarpur, where the petitioner was already in custody with the police. The petitioner was taken out of the lock-up and was interrogated by S. I. Manohar Singh P. W. in the presence of P. W. 2 A. S. I. Jarnail Singh, Joginder Nath, S. H. O. of Police Station City and Mohinder Singh. The petitioner disclosed that he had kept the opium concealed in a secret niche in his baithak of his residential house, which was known to him and that it could be got recovered by him. In pursuance of his disclosure statement, Ex. PA, he got recovered three small bags of opium from the northern wall of his baithak by removing a wooden covering. The said bags were weighed and two of them contained two kilograms of opium each and third bag contained three kilograms of opium. Out of each bag 10 grams of opium was taken out for sample, which was put into three separate small tins and made into parcels. The sample on chemical analysis was found to be Opium. The case against the petitioner already stood registered at Police Station City, Hoshiarpur vide First Information Report, Ex. PD, or. 1st July, 1980.

(3.) AT the trial, the petitioner denied the prosecution allegations and pleaded false implication. His version is as follows: I am innocent. On 1. 7. 1980, the police raided my house and thoroughly searched the house, but nothing incriminating was recovered. The police, however, look into possession my scooter and golden ornaments of ray wife. My house consists of three storeys. I live in the second floor of my house along with my family while the remaining portion of my house is in occupation of different tenants. The door of the Deohri remains open throughout and the door of the baithak opens towards the street, which is a thoroughfare. Earlier I was involved in the murder case in which I was found innocent and acquitted. Now the police has planted the case upon me. In, the Court of the learned C. J. M. , Hoshiarpur and also in this Court, on the earlier hearings, the prosecution used to produce a small Gulla, but on the day when Manohar Singh Section I. was examined, the Gulla was changed and big Gulla was produced in the Court S. I. Manohar Singh never interrogated me nor he investigated this case. He remained busy in the investigation of some criminal cases of police station Sadar. Hoshiarpur. He remained out of Hoshiarpur during the period from 8. 7. 1980 to 12. 7. 1980 in connection with the investigation of some other cases. When I came to know that the police wants to arrest me, I surrendered in the Court voluntarily on 10. 7. 1980. He also produced in defence D. W. 1 Santpkh Singh, regarding the site plan of his (petitioner's) house, DW 2 Smt. Gurdev Kaur, Ahlmad in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hoshiarpur, who produced the case file of state v. Joginder Singh, under Section 9 (a) of the Opium Act, in which Mohinder Singh son of Faqir Singh of village Kadiana appeared as P. W. 1 on 6th August, 1981, D. W. 3 Sada Ram, Moharrir of C. I. A. Staff, Hoshiarpur, who produced the roznamcha (daily diary register) of C. I. A. Staff, Hoshiarpur for the month of July, 1980. He proved that S. I. Manohar Singh (P. W. 1) had left the C. I. A. Staff Hoshiarpur at 4. 30 p. m. on 7th July, 1980 to investigate the case under Section 379, Indian Penal Code, F. I. R. No. 276/77 of the Police Station City, Hoshiarpur, and returned on 12th July, 1980 at 6. 05 p. m. and D. W. I Mohinder Singh son of Faqir Singh, who has supported the defence version. Mohinder Singh DW was cited by the prosecution, but he was not produced.